I was quite excited by all these arrangements; but an interview with
Deborah soon cooled my ardor.

Allan and Jumbles had gone out with Uncle Geoffrey, and I was
sitting at the window looking over the lawn and the mulberry tree,
when a sudden tap at the door startled me from my reverie. Of course
it was Deborah; no one else's knuckles sounded as though they were
iron. Deborah was a tall, angular woman, very spare and erect of
figure, with a severe cast of countenance, and heavy black curls
pinned up under her net cap; her print dresses were always starched
until they crackled, and on Sunday her black silk dress rustled as I
never heard any silk dress rustle before.

"Yes, Deborah, what is it?" I asked, half-frightened; for surely my
hour had come. Deborah was standing so very erect, with the basket of
keys in her hands, and her mouth drawn down at the corners.

"Master said this morning," began Deborah, grimly, "as how there was
a new family coming to live here, and that I was to go to Miss Esther
for orders. Five-and-twenty years have I cooked master's dinners for
him, and received his orders, and never had a word of complaint from
his lips, and now he is putting a mistress over me and Martha."

"Oh, Deborah," I faltered, and then I came to a full stop; for was
it not trying to a woman of her age and disposition, used to Uncle
Geoffrey's bachelor ways, to have a houseful of young people turned
on her hands? She and Martha would have to work harder, and they were
both getting old. I felt so much for her that the tears came into my
eyes, and my voice trembled.